The Silence of Dean Maitland

Not dated but likely 1906. Vintage edition, Red cloth-covered boards (slightly rubbed and faded), with black titles and motif cat decorative. 349pp. Spine a tad faded. A little age on pages but otherwise clean internally. Tight, firm and square. 8vo. This is the novel that made Maxwell Gray’s name – the story of a clergyman who gets a young girl pregnant, kills her father in a fight and then allows a friend to be wrongfully imprisoned for manslaughter. There was speculation at the time that the novel had been written by the daughter of the Archbishop of Canterbury or another leading churchman, and it was originally turned down for publication for being too unorthodox but was eventually accepted on the grounds that it was too good to refuse. Maxwell Gray, the pen name of Mary Gleed Tuttiett (1846-1923) also wrote “The Reproach of Annesley”, “In the Heart of the Storm” etc. This novel has been filmed twice in Australia, by Raymond Longford in 1914 and 0